Physics is not my strong point, but as far as I can make out, the LHC is a big… well, thing that some boffins in a secret underground laboratory on the Swiss-French border switched on this morning for the first time. it’s something to do with particle acceleration, dark matter and the Big Bang, and appears to involve slammings lots of high-speed atoms into each other. Or something sciencey like that.

This, apparently, has the potential to create a huge black hole and suck us all into it. Which wouldn’t be nice.

The switch-on appears not to have destroyed everything, although apparently that was only one very early stage and there’s still more pressing of buttons still to be done by the guys in white coats. So the world could yet end at any point in this process.

And in case you’re seeking confirmation of the outcome, then this website rather handily helps you to keep updated.

In some senses, the end of the world would be quite good – I have a whole pile of washing up in the sink that I really can’t muster the energy to deal with. But on the other hand, I don’t want to miss my USA trip.